Baseball

It was the final play in the third game of the season for the New York University baseball team. Coach Doug Kimbler saw the pitch, the pop-up, the ball landing in his shortstop’s mitt. Then, with the game won, Kimbler watched the shortstop roll the ball over the mound before leaving the field, as he would for any other game. Except this wasn’t just any other game. Kimbler knew that ball marked history.

A cancer diagnosis. More than three years of chemotherapy. Two hip replacements. Through it all, Richie Suarez just wanted a chance to play college baseball. But he picked up something unexpected along the way.

Zac Houck’s story was a rarity when NCAA Champion magazine talked to him for the winter 2014 issue. That upcoming spring would have been the Jacksonville baseball outfielder’s senior season if he hadn’t decided to forgo that final year to chase his dreams of a pro career — as a concussion researcher.